A Comparative Study On English And Chinese Collocation Markers In Interviews From The Perspective Of Interactional Linguistics

Adverbial conjunction,AC for short,is a special class of words,which lies in the“transitional zone” between adverbs and conjunctions,and has both modifying and connective functions.In recent years,more and more scholars have paid close attention to the adverbials,and carried out deep researches.However,ACs can not only be used alone in all kinds of discourse,but also used in forms of the collocation of other ACs or conjunctions.In this thesis,we define such structure as “collocation marker”.Based on the previous researches,collocation markers will be defined from two aspects: 1)a conventional quasi-fixed phrases of AC or a four-word(four-character)structure of AC;2)a non-fixed structure of AC that can be freely combined according to some structural regularity and is grammatically and syntactically correct.However,current related researches about collocation markers are still in limited number.In addition,interactive linguistic scholars have gradually become more influential in the field of linguistics in recent years.As a newly emerging branch of linguistics,they focus on the discourse study of spoken language,mainly studying the forms of language used in daily interactive communications,highlighting the importance of spoken corpus in interaction.Therefore,this thesis selects dialogues from the interviews Fortune Time and David Rubenstein Show as the research corpus to explore the collocation patterns,and find out the interactive functions and interactive collocation mechanism of collocation markers from the perspective of interactive linguistics.Based on cohesive theory and interactive linguistics,this thesis studies collocation markers in the corpus using the methods of comparative analysis,qualitative and quantitative analysis as the main analysis methods,and gets the following results according to the research.Firstly,in terms of modes of collocation,there are three kinds of modes of collocation,which are the collocation of the same AC,the collocation of different ACs and the collocation of AC and conjunctions.The use of Chinese and English collocation markers is different in tendency.Besides,among the three types,the most frequently used is the collocation of different ACs.In addition,the collocation markers can also co-occur with adjectives,adverbs,verbs and clauses both in Chinese and English.Secondly,in terms of turn positions,Chinese and English collocation markers have different interactive functions in different positions or sequences in the turns.They can open up the turns at the beginning position and hold the turns at the middle position,but cannot appear at the final position.In addition,from the perspective of sequence,collocation markers may also appear in the special phenomenon of co-construction across turns.When two speakers co-construct several turns,they sometimes try to solve the problem of content inadequacy in communication,and their co-construction is usually connected by collocation markers.Thirdly,in terms of interactive function,collocation markers have several functions,which are mainly divided into functions of turn construction,functions of communication and functions of cohesion,which enable speakers to convey different moods and attitudes when speaking.This study aims to analyze the collocation of ACs and their usage as well as their similarities and differences in spoken English and Chinese discourse.This thesis provides a new perspective of ACs for further study,deepens learners’ understanding of the similarities and differences between English and Chinese colloquial language,improves their understanding of language skills in interviews and the ability to appreciate,and provides some references for oral English teaching.